"Hey Professor, if you have the choice of being the greatest scientist in your field, or getting Mad Cow Disease, which would you pick?

"Being the top scientist in my field of course."

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"That was the plan no matter what. Because I had Kearns and 'MaTola,' whatever his name is, the first baseman, the fat guy, I don't know what ****ing name is - LaPorta - on the bench and I didn't want them to face Matt."

For the sake of conversation, and for the fact that I'm curious, why is Dye better? First of all, I don't know how Burnitz is as a fielder, but apparently Dye is one of the best in the biz. (At least according to MVP Baseball 2004 )

Dye has the capability of being a legitimate middle of the order hitter, but injuries have been an issue the past few years.

We all know Burnitz strikes out a lot, and from what I hear he hit Paul Konerko-like away from the home stadium. What else do we know on this guy?

Health issues ultimately could separate Dye from success and failure. The soon-to-be 31-year-old battled a broken left thumb last August, a separated shoulder and knee injury in 2003 and broke his leg in the 2001 playoffs on a much publicized foul ball. Dye hit .252 in 2002, .265 with 80 RBIs in 2004 and only .172 over 221 at-bats in 2003.

He actually hit better after suffering the broken thumb. Even if you throw out the injury plagued 2003, Burnitz has still put up better numbers 2 out of the other 3 years. Like I said before, neither player will be mistaken for Vlad Guerrero. They are both average players.